'Plug and play' bug causing major hacking risk

By Edward Gent

Published Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Bugs in “plug and play” networking technology expose tens of millions of devices to attack by hackers, researchers have said.

The problem lies in computer routers and other networking equipment that use a commonly employed standard known as Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), which makes it easy for networks to identify and communicate with equipment, reducing the amount of work it takes to set up networks.

But in a white paper to be released today by security software maker Rapid7, the firm says it has discovered between 40 million and 50 million devices that were vulnerable to attack due to three separate sets of problems the firm's researchers have identified with the UPnP standard.

The long list of devices includes products from manufacturers including Belkin, D-Link, Cisco Systems Inc's Linksys division and Netgear, but representatives for Belkin, D-Link, Linksys and Netgear could not be reached for comment on Monday evening.

Chris Wysopal, chief technology officer of security software firm Veracode, said he believed that publication of Rapid7's findings would draw widespread attention to the still emerging area of UPnP security, prompting other security researchers to search for more bugs in UPnP.

"This definitely falls into the scary category," said Wysopal, who reviewed Rapid7's findings ahead of their publication. "There is going to be a lot more research on this. And the follow-on research could be a lot scarier."

Veracode's Wysopal said that some hackers have likely already exploited the flaws to launch attacks, but in relatively small numbers, choosing victims one at a time.

"If they are going after executives and government officials, then they will probably look for their home networks and exploit this vulnerability," he said.

Rapid7 has privately alerted electronics makers about the problem through the CERT Coordination Center, a group at the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute that helps researchers report vulnerabilities to affected companies.

Moore said that he expected CERT to release a public warning about the flaw on Tuesday but a spokesman for the CERT declined to comment.

A source with a networking equipment maker confirmed they had been alerted that CERT would issue an advisory on Tuesday and that companies were preparing to respond.

The flaws could allow hackers to access confidential files, steal passwords, take full control over PCs as well as remotely access devices such as webcams, printers and security systems, according to Rapid7.

Moore said that there were bugs in most of the devices he tested and that device manufacturers will need to release software updates to remedy the problems but this is unlikely to happen quickly.

In the meantime, he advised computer users to quickly use a free tool released by Rapid7 to identify vulnerable gear, then disable the UPnP functionality in that equipment.

Moore said hackers have not widely exploited the UPnP vulnerabilities to launch attacks, but both Moore and Wysopal expect they may start to do so after the findings are publicized.

People who own devices with UPnP enabled may not be aware of it because new routers, printers, media servers, web cameras, storage drives and "smart" or Web-connected TVs are often shipped with that functionality turned on by default.

"You can't stay silent about something like this," he said. "These devices seem to have had the same level of core security for decades. Nobody seems to really care about them."

Rapid7 is advising businesses and consumers alike to disable UPnP in devices that they suspect may be vulnerable to attack. The firm has released a tool to help identify those devices on its website http://www.rapid7.com

Rapid7’s ScanNow for UPnP tool requires Java and only runs on Windows platforms so they have built a simple portal that checks whether a router is exposed for those using different operating systems. Visit http://upnp-check.rapid7.com/